BELIEFS OF THEELIZABETHAN ERA

Beliefs Overview

There were many different types of beliefs in the Elizabethan Era. They were: · Daily Life (general) beliefs such as walking under ladders or spilling salt and pepper. · Medical Beliefs such as beliefs about the human organs and the four humours. · Religious Beliefs such as Protestant beliefs and Catholic beliefs · Astrological and Astronomical Beliefs such as the positioning of the planets in the Solar System.

General Beliefs

Elizabethans saw the world as a delicate place, with spirits of good and evil. They believed that this balance extended beyond the spiritual world. They thought that the laws of nature were similarly related and that changes that made things more appealing would also make them more healthful. That is the reason why in times of plague, the Elizabethans burned scented firewood in the streets and people carried sweet-smelling flowers in their pockets to ward off disease. The childhood rhyme, 'Ring around the rosy' is about the times of plague and the second line 'pocket full of posies' refers to the flowers. These types of beliefs are currently referred to as sympathetic magic meaning the Elizabethans believed in this a lot.

Medical Beliefs - The Heart, Liver and Brain

Medical Beliefs The three main organs in the body according to Elizabethans were the heart, liver and brain. The liver was thought to create the blood,and produce the energy needed for a person to survive. Elizabethans believed the heart was the centre of life. They also belied that the heart sent vital spirits throughout the body which told us what to do and controlled our emotions. The brain was where a person reasoned, memorised, and imagined. This was the centre of the logical part of the person and used spirits as its helpers.

Medical Beliefs - The Four Humours

A common belief during the Elizabethan time revolved around the four humours. It was believed that the four humours were blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. According to this belief, the humour most present in a man would determine a person's personality. But Elizabethans believed that too much of any of the humours caused disease and bad traits.

Religious Beliefs - Queen Elizabeth I and Catholicism

Queen Elizabeth I had spent her whole life surrounded by both Protestants and Catholics. The English people careered for the Catholic religion and the Protestant religion. The life of Queen Elizabeth had been dependent on her outward behaviour to the Catholic religion during the reign of her half-sister, Queen Mary. When Elizabeth succeeds to the throne of England she didn't mind Catholicism and wanted to show tolerance to them. However, her level of tolerance decreased as the years went by due to the various Catholic plots at replacing Queen Elizabeth with a Catholic monarch and restoring England to the original religion.

Religious Beliefs - Protestant Christianity

During the Elizabethan Era, England was a Protestant Christian country because Queen Elizabeth I's first act as Queen was to restore Protestant Christianity as the official religion. This was part of the European movement called the Reformation, which had started with attacks on corruption in the Catholic Church and led to the founding of Protestant churches. Since many wars were fought in the name of religion, all the English Catholics were seen as traitors to their country and were forbidden to hold any position concerning the public. Some Protestants (Puritans) felt that the Church in England hadn't gone far enough in its rejection of Catholicism. They wanted to ‘purify’ the Church of its remaining Catholic elements such as the bishop and ceremonial robes.

History of Religion Table

1509 -1547 -

1547 -1553 -

1553 - 1553 -1558 -

1509 -1547 -

King Henry VIII – then a Catholic established the Church of England in 1531 sticking to many Protestant beliefs His son, King Edward VI, also stuck with the Protestant religion. Edward died young and was succeeded by his cousin Lady Jane Grey Queen Jane only reigned for nine days and was replaced by Edward's sister Mary Queen Mary was a strong Catholic believer – she obtained the name Bloody Mary for her persecution of Protestants Queen Elizabeth succeeded Mary. She restored Protestant Christianity as the official religion but was also tolerant to Catholics

Astrological and Astronomical Beliefs

Elizabethans believed that there were seven planets: the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sol (the Sun), Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, which rotated around the earth. The Elizabethans believed that the Earth was the centre of the universe (they were very “self centred”). To Elizabethans, the positions the planets were in affected the life on earth. and the astrologers thought that they could predict the future by knowing the positions of stars. The movements of the stars and the appearance of comets and eclipses were thought to cause disaster.

Astrological and Astronomical Beliefs - Supernatural Healing

Medicine was not thought to be scientific in the Elizabethan Era. If someone had a disease of some sort, it would be treated by supernatural art and astrology. The astrological positions of the planets were believed to cause threats or benefits to health. Saturn, for example, was believed to make the duration of things longer and Mars was believed to cause Tertian fever. This means the combination of Mars and Saturn was believed to have caused the plagues that hit England. Supernatural arts such as sorcery, magic and demonology were also the thinking behind some medical worries. Many diseases were (according to them) caused by devils, spirits, demons and gods etc, and were supposedly countered by charms, white magic (non-evil) and prayers (although this made no difference but they didn’t know this).

Astrology and Shakespeare

Elizabethan Astrology fascinated many famous Elizabethans. William Shakespeare made over 100 references to Astrology in his plays. Astrology is mentioned in every one of his plays and it was often critical to the plots, the actions and events. Some characters in his plots are fated by the stars. For Example: Prospero in 'The Tempest’ defied the stars and then used them to his benefit and Anthony from 'Julius Caesar' blamed his first defeat to the fact that the stars had forsaken him, and blamed the Moon's eclipse for his fall. Signs of the zodiacs were also mentioned in six of Shakespeare's plays. As well as this, the planets influence the end of many others, such as Posthumus from 'Cymbeline' who was born under the planet Jupiter, meaning that he would have a happy ending.